July 12, night, the end of the unitary hour (7 p.m.).

The north gate of Xiangyang City.

When Shen Shuren appeared in Xiangyang City with a descendant army of about 10,000 people, he saw from a distance that several fires and shouts of killing were chaotic in several places in the city.

On the autumn night of the seventh month of the lunar calendar, it is about a quarter of an hour after the sky is completely dark, and the firelight is very vivid in the night.

Zuo Zixiong, Zhang Mingzhen, Yang Jinjue and other three generals also withdrew with Shen Shuren this time.

They had also participated in the battle of "steadily going north to rescue Luoyang" before, and had fought with Ma Shouying's department near Luyang Pass in Funiu Mountain, and their knowledge, vision, and courage had also improved slightly compared to before.

But when they saw the fire in Xiangyang City, these three generals were inevitably a little flustered, and they all seemed to think that Zhang Xianzhong must have succeeded in the sneak attack-

Li Zicheng, Luo Rucai, and Ma Shouying all gathered on the northern front, and Yang Sichang also went north in person, and there could be no other enemies on the southern side.

Although Zhang Xianzhong is theoretically far away, after excluding all other options, the last option, even if it seems unreasonable, can only be the only answer.

Among the crowd, only Shen Shuren was not panicked at all, and even had a sense of steadiness that a stone had fallen to the ground in his heart.

The days of a thousand days of anti-thieves are not easy, you must be careful every day, always on guard, there is no end.

Based on his knowledge of history, he always felt that although he had caused the butterfly effect, it was already very deep. But Zhang Xianzhong will most likely not give up the operation of "sneaking up on Xiangyang and framing Yang Sichang" in history.

I've waited so long, and now it's finally here. If you can take the opportunity to completely hurt Zhang Xianzhong, the key is to make him realize that it is useless to frame a feudal official with this method, and it will only outweigh the losses, so that the problem of sneak attack can be solved once and for all.

The subordinate generals were still slightly flustered, and Shen Shuren took the lead and calmly issued the deployment:

"Don't panic! Even if there is a fire in the city, there must be many places where there is a scuffle when you listen to this shouting and killing! It is impossible for Zhang Yi to control the whole city! Calm down, everyone!

Think about it a little, Zhang Yi was west of Jingmen, between the peaks of Jingshan Mountain, and after leaving the mountainous area, the closest road to Xiangyang also had to go around Longzhong.

Yang Ge Lao has only been going north for four days, and Zhang Wei came so quickly, obviously he has internal work around Yang Ge Lao! At least there is eyeliner in this Xiangyang City! And to achieve this level of sneak attack, the only way to do it is to ride fast horses and run day and night, and the number of people will not be too many!

Yang Ge Lao left two guards in Xiangyang City, at least three or four thousand people, and the fighting has not stopped until now, it must be that Zhang Wei does not have enough manpower to control the whole city, so he can only focus on destruction.

Zhang Mingzhen, you immediately take 2,000 people, gather the cavalry of the whole army, take my seal letter and the letter of appointment given to me by Yang Ge Lao, and go to the farthest south gate to intercept it, this fire started from the north gate, Zhang Wei must have let people deceive the north gate into the city, and the south gate may still be in the hands of the officials and soldiers! If the officers and soldiers believe you, you will go into the city for reinforcements, and if you do not believe you, you will block the city gates.

Yang Jinjue, you take 3,000 infantry and go to the east gate to defend. Zuo Zixiong, you take the main force to block with me outside this north gate, enter the city one by one, and recapture the urn city first. Then divide a thousand to go to the West Gate - there is Tanxi outside the West Gate of Xiangyang, the water surface is wide, and it is not easy for the cavalry to escape in vain. ”

The generals listened to him make sense, and the coach spoke so calmly that he completely regained his confidence.

It is definitely not Zhang Xianzhong's main army that comes! It's just a small army of sneak attacks and sabotage! Therefore, the top priority is not to rush up immediately, but to surround the gates of Xiangyang first, confirm the situation, and understand which gates are still in the hands of the officials and soldiers.

The generals immediately executed the order of the Sinking Treeman, and did not attack immediately, but waited for the various troops to return to their positions.

During the time of waiting in place, it was better to let the flames in the city burn more violently, and the shouts of killing became more intense and miserable, but the Shen family army just carried out the order step by step.

It can be seen that after destroying the third of the fifth battalion of the revolutionary left, this army fought a bloody battle with Ma Shouying, and in terms of discipline, it has completely forbade the words of Shen Shuren, and there is no doubt about it.

……

The key to this battle is precisely to quietly outflank, surround on all sides, and not panic.

Zhang Xianzhong's subordinates' sneak attacks have been able to succeed repeatedly, and they have always mainly relied on the fact that the officers and soldiers "don't know how many thieves are attacking, and the enemy situation is unknown", so they panicked and leaked their morale.

Once the officers and soldiers are calm, the outcome of such a battle is obvious.

Shen Shuren sharpened his knife and did not mistake the woodcutter, and delayed for more than a quarter of an hour to get the various departments in place, and then launched a counterattack.

In fact, there are only some vanguard light cavalry under Zhang Xianzhong's command in the city, and they only dared to defend the barracks and city towers to the death with the fear of 4,000 officers and soldiers, and Zhang Xianzhong's army showed off their might and set fire everywhere.

The size of these vanguard light horsemen is about one or two thousand—

To be exact, an hour ago, Zhang Xianzhong's army had forty or fifty elites who played the role of homeless people who were driven away by thieves, first infiltrated the urn city, and then suddenly attacked to control the key points. Taking advantage of the sluggishness of the official army, they held out for a few minutes, and then let in the one or two thousand cavalry who were in ambush ten miles away. Relying on these 2,000 cavalry, they officially carried the counterattack of the officials and soldiers in the city, and rushed back and forth along the streets.

Now that there are more than 10,000 people in Shenshu, they have been directly surrounded by various gates, and they have also sent messages to all gates and battalions of the officers and soldiers in the city to stabilize people's hearts and surround them at all levels, and of course there is no suspense in the battle.

The fight with one knife and one shot is not the key to winning and losing tonight at all. With seven or eight times the total strength of the enemy, Shen Shuren had never fought such a rich battle in his life.

So, half an hour later, the cavalry of Zhang Xianzhong's department was surrounded and annihilated by the Shen Shuren after killing the two vassal kings in Xiangyang City and a large number of rich and wealthy families.

The street fighting in the city was not suitable for cavalry, and the Shen army formed a gun array and bayonet formation along the long street, and squeezed it with fire guns to block the way, and soon the thieves who lost their mobility could be killed on the long street.

Only a very small number of brave men, who seemed to be disguised as ordinary people to climb over the wall, sneak attacked individual officers and soldiers from the west of the city, snatched horses and jumped to Tanxi.

But in any case, Shen Shuren still succeeded in capturing at least a group of cavalry officers under Zhang Xianzhong's command.

These officers are also quite skilled in martial arts, and the generals are afraid that they will break out and hurt people, so Zuo Zixiong, who has the strongest martial arts, personally escorted the thief officers who were tied up by five flowers and sent them to Shen Shuren for torture.

Shen Shuren met the captives in the blood-drenched Xiangyang Xingyuan Yamen. This line was the office of Yang Sichang when he was in Xiangyang as a supervisor, and after Yang Sichang left, there were some civilian staff members who stayed here.

Zhang Xianzhong obviously hated Yang Sichang to death, so after his soldiers entered the city and attacked him, in addition to killing the vassal king, the second thing he paid attention to was to kill Yang Sichang's staff and auxiliary personnel.

There were nearly 1,000 people inside and outside the yamen, and except for those who fled in disguise, none of them survived.

"Say, what is the purpose of Yang Sichang sending you? Why do you want to attack Xiangyang with this little force, you don't think that this will be able to capture Xiangyang for a long time, right? ”

The Shenshu people didn't want to get too close to the captives, and they covered their mouths and noses and pretended not to tolerate the smell of blood.

The captive who was the leader did not answer, and wanted to use blood to spitt the Sinking Tree Man, but of course the Sinking Tree Man would not give the other party a chance.

"If you don't answer, forget it, ask his subordinates, there are always people who can't survive the torture and confess, maybe this guy's identity is also quite valuable, and if he is sent to the capital, he can help Yang Ge Lao atone for some sins." Shen Shuren drove away the unpleasant smell and directly ordered Zuo Zixiong.

Who knew that as soon as the captive heard him say, "Sending yourself to the capital can atone for Yang Sichang's sins", his face immediately changed, and his facial masseter muscles twitched.

Fortunately, Zuo Zixiong next to him is also strong in martial arts, with bright ears and eyes, and immediately judged that this was a charging action before biting his tongue and committing suicide, and immediately slashed horizontally with one palm, dislocating the opponent's jawbone.

"My lord! This guy wants to kill himself! It seems that Zhang Wei really hates Yang Ge Lao, and everything is better to frame Yang Ge Lao. ”

"Then there's nothing to say, hurry up and torture the others first and ask him for his identity!"

Shen Shuren was also worried that this person was Li Dingguo, so he had the idea of separating and fighting for each other, and he didn't want to make the other party too crippled for the time being, the kind of cripple that could not be recovered.

Fortunately, Zuo Zixiong was also efficient, and after going around the isolated interrogation room next to him, and after killing a few prisoners, he had already asked for the result.

"My lord, his subordinates all said that this guy is Zhang Wei's fourth righteous son, Ai Nengqi, how to deal with it. In addition, according to the results of the torture just now, Zhang Xianzhong sent two righteous sons who were famous for their martial arts to frame Yang Ge Lao this time.

There is also a man named Li Dingguo, who took the dozens of dead soldiers who were originally disguised as fleeing people to deceive the city gate, because they did not wear military clothes and armor, and now they are missing, and I don't know if they took advantage of the chaos to mix in the people and escape.

This Ai Nengqi was responsible for leading the cavalry of the 2,000 rear army, and at first he was ambushed outside the field of vision of the defenders at the head of the city in the distance, and only after Li Dingguo succeeded in deceiving the door, they launched a charge and swarmed in. ”

Shen Shuren breathed a sigh of relief, since the person in front of him was Ai Nengqi, it would be easy to do. In history, Zhang Xianzhong's four righteous sons, Sun Kewang and Liu Wenxiu are not known for their personal martial arts, but Ai Nengqi is strong in martial arts.

Moreover, this Ainengqi did not follow the resume of the Southern Ming Dynasty to resist the Qing Dynasty in history, and his main murderous credit came from the experience of following Zhang Xianzhong as a thief.

During the period after Zhang Xianzhong's death in history, Ainengqi's military exploits were still mainly in fighting Nanming's troops, killing Zeng Ying, the general soldier of Southern Sichuan, and other generals in Nanming.

Therefore, Shen Shuren will certainly not have the slightest mercy for this kind of thief general who can only fight the national civil war.

He immediately ordered: "In this case, pull out all his teeth, so that he will not have the opportunity to commit suicide again in the following nights, and remove the six fingers from his thumb to the middle finger, so as to prevent him from being lax in custody and give him a chance to get out of trouble with weapons or commit suicide."

The other captives who were willing to confess his identity and the purpose of Zhang Xianzhong's arrangement this time were taken care of, and promised that when they arrived in the capital to confess well, they would be pardoned for their previous sins, and they would be rewarded and officials. ”

Shen Shuren is very careful about proportion, he can't talk about revenge with the other party, and all measures are limited to preventing suicide. The ring finger and little finger of a person are very weak, and it is impossible to hold things, so leave two fingers on his left and right hands to draw fingerprints.

Ainengqi refused to say anything, and the Sinking Tree Man didn't bother to waste his strength on him, anyway, it was the same to ask other prisoners of war for confessions.

After some severe torture, Shen Shuren really picked out a smart person who cooperated enough, and got the confession that "the reason why Zhang Xianzhong had to send a small force to serve as a dead soldier when he could not capture the city this time was to kill the vassal king and frame the elder".

In history, Yang Sichang's biggest problem in the battle of Zhang Xianzhong stealing Xiangyang was that he let the thieves retreat with all his body, and he did not capture any of the generals who were the leader, and he couldn't even prove the other party's motive for doing eucalyptus.

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Now, Shen Shuren has finally avenged King Xiang and others, killed the murderer's troops, and asked the motive, Chongzhen should think it through, so as not to do the thing of "the relatives are bitter and the enemies are happy".

In order to be safe, Shen Shuren tried his best to write a secret letter, trying to euphemistically help the emperor analyze the logic of the matter:

The reason why Zhang Xianzhong dared to spend his blood to commit the crime of assassinating the vassal king despite not being able to occupy the city for a long time was that the original criminal law of the Ming Dynasty was too strict and rigid. The Ming law is very responsible for the crime of "losing the land", once the land is lost and the vassal king is trapped, the governor will be killed and questioned.

This forced Zhang Xianzhong's "special operation" with the motive of framing the governor, and to put it bluntly, this attack on Xiangyang was not a "siege", but an "assassination".

If the vassal king was assassinated, it should not be the responsibility of the governor, at most it was the responsibility of the palace guards. Because Zhang Xianzhong's troops did not attack the city with a banner from the beginning, they were just a small group of assassins disguised as civilians to infiltrate and assassinate.

Therefore, in order to prevent thieves from deliberately taking advantage of the laws of the Ming Dynasty, it is recommended that the imperial court clearly explain the law, "losing land and trapping feudal domains", it must be the kind where the city has been officially breached and has not been recovered by the official army for half a month.

If it is only temporarily controlled by thieves for one day or two or three days, it can be punished according to infiltration, and it is not really a long-term loss of the city.

Shen Shuren also euphemistically admonished in the secret recital: This clarification of the laws of the court is not a revision of the law, but a pure explanation, not ashamed.

Moreover, in this way, the vassal kings can be better protected, and only by letting the thieves know that when they can't capture the city for a long time, they only send the dead to play this kind of assassination of the vassal king, and they can't frame the local governor, so that the thieves have no incentive to kill more vassal kings-

The cost of assassinating King Xiang was also very high, and Zhang Xianzhong paid 2,000 soldiers and horses and a righteous son. The number of vassal kings in the Ming Dynasty is more than 100, can Zhang Xianzhong take a hundred righteous sons with strong martial arts to exchange one for two?

After writing all this, Shen Shuren asked Zuo Zixiong to personally lead a group of elite soldiers to escort the captives to the capital, and by the way, bring his folding documents.

In the end, Shen Shuren also played a little trick.

He let people secretly let out the rumors, saying that the reason why Ainengqi was captured this time and Li Dingguo could run away was because Li Dingguo had a deal with the official army in private, and wanted to frame his righteous brother to death, so as to reduce the number of competitors who would inherit his father-in-law's business in the future.

Regardless of whether this rhetoric can be separated from the thieves, at least it is very logical: who is the godson of the eunuch party, who does not want to inherit the career of the godfather?

Even if you give Zhang Xianzhong as your godson, the probability of inheritance is higher than that of Wei Zhongxian as your godson - Wei Zhongxian entered the palace after marrying a wife and giving birth in his thirties.

Those who gave Wei Zhongxian as their godson knew that Wei Zhongxian had daughters, grandsons, and nephews who could inherit the family property, and no eunuch official expected to inherit Wei Zhongxian's inheritance.

Zhang Xianzhong's degree of cutting off children and grandchildren is more complete than Wei Zhongxian, and the inheritance income for him as a godson is naturally much higher.

No matter how far apart it can be, Shen Shuren doesn't have to spend a price to set up an idle chess like this, it is a pure business.